Snowcoasters, nakedness, and ms wichawds

I remember a Sunday dinner at my mom’s house where her old college roommates came over and we sat around and talked and I think I laughed harder that night than I ever have in my entire life. My mom has some pretty dang cool friends, 2 of them used to be her roommates and I was probably 13 years old before I realized that they were 2 separate people who had 2 separate names. “Marilynbetty” was actually “Merilyn –n-Betty”.

As a side note, I love words like that. A nice lady in my ward said she remembers her son asking her what a “shamenno” was because when they’d sing primary songs they always sang “by this shamenno (shall men know) ye are my disciples.

Anyway, MerilynBetty were the coolest people I knew. They were roommates with each other, and both were teachers in the Jordan School District. Merilyn was a principal and Betty was a history teacher/student council person. This particular Sunday they were sharing stories of the outrageous awkward student moments when they really just didn’t know what to do with their students.

Merilyn talked about one mentally challenged student in her school who found it freeing to remove all of his clothing, and this was not a small person. One afternoon, they followed the trail of clothing out into the middle of the street, where they found him sitting Indian style, rocking back and forth, fumbling with his hands in a small rubbing motion, saying over and over again “Ms. Richards. Ms Richards. Nathan hurt my feelings. He hurt my feelings Ms. Richards.” The sentence isn’t as funny unless you hear somebody say it, but the R’s were W’s, the “th” was a “f”, and the words came out in varying speeds. So it sounded more like “ms.wichawds, ms.wichawds! ….. nafun-huwt my feewings.” She somehow talked him back into the building and back into his clothes for which we were all thankful. Please don’t think me inconsiderate for laughing, but at the time it was a hilarious story. While we were by no means making fun of this poor boy, or making light of his hardships, the mental picture we found was hilarious.

This story naturally lead to one of my all time favorite breakdown stories. A friend of mine had one of those mom’s a superman mom. She worked during the day, made cookies before her kids got home from school, was RS President in her ward, PTA leader lady, Room mother, and always looked well kept. She was always nice to everyone she saw and everybody counted her as a good friend. One day, her teenage daughter came home and found her rocking back and forth, muttering something about dinner, naked in a snowcoaster (you know those plastic round sled things? Snowcoasters?). This phrase “naked in a snowcoaster” has become my families catch phrase meaning that we’re emotionally unwell. We’ve snapped and we just can’t handle anything anymore.

I’ve often wondered how old I’ll be when someone finds me naked in a snowcoaster. This week I was borderline snowcoaster crazy. On Wednesday at work I truly felt like I was losing my mind. I couldn’t focus on anything, I’d re-read the same simple e-mail 3 times before fully understanding it, I couldn’t remember what I’d already done and what I hadn’t. I couldn’t look at a list of things to do and work through them. I’d walk upstairs to the printer and not remember why I was there. I seriously felt like I had lost it.

Josh made me drive home (he does this because by the time he comes to get me he’s usually been driving in rush hour traffic for an hour and the thoughts of any more of that make him sick. So I drive because I love him, and he asks me to because he doesn’t want us to die on our way home. On the way I started crying and couldn't stop. I seriously thought I was going crazy, and I'm inclined to say that Josh didn't disagree. He patiently taught me how to breath (I do this really annoying thing when I panic where I stop breathing...purely out of choice...100% mental instability) and held my hand and tried to make me sane. When we got home I just got worse. I took one look at my house and realized that no matter how hard I tried, no matter how long I lived, my house would never be good enough, my laundry would never be caught up, I would never work enough hours, cook enough dinners or wash enough dishes. I would never be OK. And that's an overwhelming thought, so I freaked out some more. I cried and breathed and breathed and cried. Josh went to school and I tried to do anything productive, but it wasn't pretty.

Thursday morning was like the biggest hangover of all time. Have you ever had a crying breakdown hangover? I have no idea what a real hangover is like, but if it's anything like that, I don't know why people drink. I called in sick and spent the day watching "The Office" (Which I am now 100% addicted to) and cooking and cleaning and tying ribbons on my Christmas presents. I now have all of the presents wrapped, tied, and ready for Christmas. But I'm still behind at work, laundry, church, and the rest of life. Thursday was a much needed day of rest and relaxation.

Poor Josh, who is doing 1 1/2 routes this week for work preparing for finals next week, going to his normal classes, starting his weekend clinics, putting up other people's Christmas lights, and truly not even setting foot inside our house between the hours of 8:00 and 11:30 pm. When he gets home he studies for a while, tries to find food, and sleeps. I feel bad for him, and can't wait for Christmas break from school and our trip to Oregon, he needs some time off, that's for sure! As for me, next week I'm going to try to work all day every day and have zero emotional breakdowns. Wish me luck!

Today I love my job. And this is why:

Josh came up to bring me lunch because he loves me. But instead of going to get lunch I made him just bring it to me and eat with me because it was already like 2:00. So he brought up Subway and we started to go out on the back porch to eat. Then David comes and says we need to eat on the front porch where it isn't so cold (due to the sun/shade factor) and we can see the view, maybe even make out. We laugh, and decide to take advantage of the front porch. David escorts us to his front porch and brings out his kitchen chairs and sets up the lawn chair as a table. We laugh a little more. Then he brings out the plant that was on his table and sets it down for our centerpiece and we really laugh. Then he brings out a candle and tells us he'll try to keep the paparazzi away. I said something about how I wished I had my camera and 2 minutes later there he is taking pictures of our romantic lunch date on his front porch. :) Seriously, this guy is funny when he wants to be! So, we ate our candlelight subway on the porch with the view of the city....today I love my job.

As a side note, I JUST got the rejection e-mail today saying they didn't hire me for that other position with the church - there's a shock! But it's all good, because today I love my job!

Christmas time is here....

I love my tree - last year I hated it and was totally embarrassed by it, but this year I love it. It's a little crookedy on top, but who isn't? You know? I love sitting on the couch and looking at the lights, and yes, even feeling their warmth from across the room. :) Someday it will be better, and cuter, and I'll have a fancy nice tree, but for now I love my tacky-too-many-lights-tree. This picture just doesn't do it justice, but I can live with that. Now it has the skirt, the presents beneath it, the angel on top, the whole thing, but for now I'll just soak in the light.

Blessings

I remember a time when I was probably 7 or 8 years old going to tithing settlement with my family. While we waited in the foyer for our turn to tell the bishop we were full tithe payers, they handed us our records of all the tithing we had paid for the whole year. I remember my mom showing me where the total was and me realizing how rich I was $8 is a lot of money to an 8 year old! It wasn't until later that afternoon that I finally dared ask someone "when do we get our tithing settlement?" I thought that tithing settlement meant they give you the amount of money that was on the paper. I didn't realize that it was how much we had given to the church. Then my daddy sat me down and explained that the really big number that said "total" next to it was only 10% of what I had earned that whole year. Back then I don't think I comprehended what a year was - or what $8 was. But I remember thinking that was a LOT of money.

Tithing settlement has never stopped amazing me. Every year I'm shocked to see that total number and realize that I made 10 times that much in 1 year. Then I always wonder what happened to all of that money, because I don't usually have much to show for it. This year was no different, except that number reflected 2 incomes, and blew me away twice as much as normal! At this time of year, I think one of the blessings of tithing is taking a look at all that you've been given in a years' time. We are so lucky to have good jobs, and to be able to support ourselves. For that reason, along with a lot of others, I'm thankful for tithing.

Do you ever have those moments when you realize how different 2 people can be? And then you realize you're married to someone who is about as different as possible? I had one of those on Sunday.

I LOVE living close to our family and friends, I love that we get to visit the people we love all the time, and I LOVE that we don't get lonely. However, I am one those people who just gets close to a few people and is content with that. I never had a ton of friends, just a few really good friends. That's the way I like it, I'm uncomfortable in crowds, I like knowing somebody really well, and I'd far rather hang out with 1 person I know VERY well and love dearly than a group of people I get along with just fine. Josh on the other hand gets anxious when he's not doing something or going somewhere or talking to people. He loves to get a big group of people together and play games until nobody is having fun anymore. He loves to watch people interact with each other, and he loves to have 20 conversations/activities going on at 1 time. I think it supports his ADD.

Sunday was our last Sunday that was ours for the next month and a half. From now until we move we have plans EVERY single Sunday, and most of them are Christmas parties or Birthday celebrations. So, I was thrilled that I could cook us dinner, hang out, play some 2 player games, and just enjoy each others' company without having to worry about going anywhere, getting home late, or anything else that's stressful.

Josh really enjoyed the morning like that, but we'd only been home from church for an hour when the whining started.
"Are you sure there isn't somewhere we should be right now?" He asked
"No, we have tithing settlement in 45 minutes, but that's all today."
"Isn't' it somebody's birthday?"
"No."
"Are you sure Jamie and Cameron don't want to come and play?" Before church when he realized we had no plans, we both got excited and decided we'd force Jamie and Cameron to come play games with us. We even put bottles of water in the fridge in preparation (Jamie hates Utah water, and only drinks bottled water). We were so prepared. Then I remembered they would be in Washington, or on their way home from Washington, or unpacking from their trip to Washington. I told Josh that we weren't allowed to bother them within the first 3 hours that they were back. He was sad.
"I'm not sure they don't' want to come play, but I'm sure we're not going to pounce on them the second they get home! Sometimes people just need some time to recover from a trip, and we have to let them do that."
"Do we have any other friends?"
"Nope. Looks like you're stuck with me today." I joked - mostly.
"OK. Wanna play greed?"
So it went, for the whole afternoon. He kept asking if we could call Jamie and Cameron, I kept saying no, then we'd decide we're going to be lost when they move to Washington and we'd better learn how to make some new friends, just in case of emergencies like this.

I crave that kind of time with Josh, just the two of us hanging out, nowhere to go, no responsibilities, no distractions. He hates it, he goes crazy, gets bored, doesn't want to do anything, can't handle doing nothing, it's bad. We wound up going to bed pretty early because he was so stir crazy and can't handle being awake with nothing to do. Poor kid - I hope that once we have 10 zillion kids running around out house that will satisfy his need for something to be happening at all times.

Under Contract

It's official. We are under contract on the dream house in North Salt Lake. We accepted their counter offer and are scheduled to close on January 7th. Wow. Big deal eh? So, now we move forward with inspections, financing, appraisals, and the rest of the deal. It's kinda freaking us out, but we're feeling pretty good about it. So, wish us luck in the next part!

The Friday that wasn't white.

I love Fridays. And Holidays. And pretty much any day that Josh doesn't have to go to school. Today though....well I only kinda loved today.

Misty and Mom Reilley always go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. And they go all day long. They start at 4am and don't usually stop until 9pm. Sometimes they break for lunch. They're insane, and we all reap the benefit. This year I actually got a little jealous, I looked at some of the ads and saw some great deals. Some good stuff I wanted, some things even worth waking early for. This morning we got bored of sleeping at about 5 anyway, so we figured that we might as well go get some super cheap stuff to give to the people we love. So, we headed for Circuit City because they had real cheap movies and things.

When we pulled up there was a line of people outside, which was strange because they'd been open for quite some time. We found out from other people in line that they were only letting 400 people in the store at a time. So, they let the first 400 in, and as one person would leave, they'd let one more person in. Seriously, that's INSANE!!! By the time we found out that we'd be in the line until the people in the store were finished, we had already been there for a long time so we figured we may as well get in and do some shopping. We did, we found good stuff, spent WAY too much money, got some good deals, went CRAZY, stood in LONG lines, waited for someone to pay attention to us, it was a LOT of unproductive shopping. I wanted to go to Smith's Marketplace for the sock sale, and we did. They had games for a pretty good deal, we got some good stuff, but spent WAY too much time wandering around and WAY too much time in line and got very little done.

On the plus side, Josh's computer was in the car and I got to shop online while we were doing Redbox. That was INCREDIBLY productive. I can't even tell you how much I hate stores, crowds, advertising the price after the rebate, "limited quantity available", and parking lots. Online shopping solves every one of those problems for me, and I'm 99% sure that I will only buy gift cards and things that can be delivered to my door from now on. So, if you know me, please don't be offended by the impersonal gifts - but I can't handle it. I officially resign from shopping in stores. Especially on Black Friday.

I "heart" ebay

When we first moved into our current residence, we quickly found plenty of evidence that we were living in an older couples' home. The blue shag carpet; the picture wall of all 89 of their grand kids; the wood burning stove in their living room; the giant green couch (if you haven't seen this thing, you REALLY should); the blue walls; the wall paper; the fact that they used the bathroom that only has a tub and no shower; the list continues. But possibly the thing that caused me the most grief was the burner covers. They have an old electric stove and she had these ugly yellow and orange and brown burner covers.

You should know that I had a lot of embarrassing housewife disasters just after we got married. Most of them happened in the kitchen. I used to have a teapot, until I burned it up. I remember one morning boiling water for cider and when Josh went to pour it out he burned his fingers on the handle. He dropped it, and barely refrained himself from swearing. I kinda laughed at him a little bit. Then 5 minutes later I did the EXACT same thing, only I freaked out when I got burned, threw the thing across the kitchen, and it wound up melting my rug. I burned up more than 1 pan because of letting all of the water boil out of it. I baked brownies that exploded all over the oven. I tried to make spaghetti and then had to wait for Josh's family to get here, so it turned into goop instead of noodles. These stories could go on for days. More than once I removed the ugly stove cover, put a pot on the burner to boil water and found out later that I turned on the wrong burner. Yes, that's right, I really REALLY burned up covers. And these are OLD covers, probably came across the plains with her pioneer ancestors. After completely ruining 2 of them, I took the other 2 off and have had much better luck with the stove. I'm learning - slowly but surely. It's no wonder this poor lady was convinced that I'd burn her house to the ground, she wasn't far from the truth!

So for the past year, I've kinda been looking for replacements. Hoping I could find the exact thing, and the closer we get to moving out, the more I realize that I'm going to have to buckle down, but her new ugly ones and tell her what horrible thing I did. Josh is convinced that she won't care about them and probably wants new ones anyway, I'm still a little convinced that she inherited them from someone special.

Today in my Christmas shopping (which by the way was far more successful online than it was in actual stores) I decided I'd just check ebay 1 more time even though I've spent hours looking already and never found a thing. And suddenly there it was! I found them! Thanks to ladycharguth I may get away with not telling this nice lady that I wrecked her stuff! I can't even tell you how excited I am. Ebay truly has the answers to most of life's problems.

So let it be written

We wrote an offer on that perfect house in NSL. Wow, big step. Now we're waiting to hear back, I heard they have a counter offer, but we haven't seen it yet.....we'll see.

Good grief I love holidays. This morning Josh had school, tonight Josh has school, and tomorrow morning I'm not moving from my warm comfortable bed until 8:30 at LEAST!!! This morning was one of those mornings when sleeping feels SOOO good, and even after you're not tired, being in bed feels SOOO good, that you just know, you KNOW you absolutely, should NOT, under any condition get out of bed or you will regret it. Josh jumped up and looked out the window - weird habit, but he does it every day - and said something about there being frost on the window. In our 10 hundred year old house the windows haven't been replaced, like ever. So, when it's cold outside, the frost literally accumulates on the inside of the window. Most people scrape their car windows in the morning during the winter, not us. We scrape our house windows. :) It's cold in our house, to say the least. At some point I'll turn up the heat, but I much prefer curling up in a blanket for a lot of reasons. Mostly because you can't be very productive in a blanket. You just have to focus on staying warm. I like jobs like that. Just stay warm, and still, and calm. Mmmm sounds good to me.

I'm in one of those moods, the go home, bake something, make soup, drink hot chocolate, wrap up in a blanket, only fold clothes if they're still warm from the dryer mood. And I'm happy about it. I'm sure the turkey tomorrow won't help the situation - something makes me think - no KNOW - that it will NOT be a productive weekend. Maybe we'll come to an agreement on this house...we shall see.

Houses

We finished house shopping tonight and of course we found THE perfect house - only now I'm not so sure we can afford it. Sigh. It's so perfect, in North Salt Lake, in a neighborhood place, a balcony, 2 bed, 2 bath, an OPEN kitchen, with plenty of cupboards and counters. A place for a table, a big master closet, it's PERFECT! And it is definitely what we thought was in our price range.

We went up to look at it tonight, and it really is perfect, and we both felt really good about it, then I came home and looked at our budget and took away my income (just for the sake of argument) and it turns out that it's real expensive. Technically housing should only take up about 40% of your income, but most people find that it does more. But, as I continue to work, it might still be possible. The real problem is that I don't feel like it's smart to rent because you wind up spending almost as much on rent as you would on a mortgage. Maybe that's not true, but it's my perception. At least we know about tithing. That's pushing for us. Now we just need to decide if we really think we can do it or not. I sure hope so though, because I really did fall in love with that place. It's perfect! Even with a garage for my hubby. Just 1 though, not 4...he's a little bummed about that, but I told him our next house could have more garage. It just doesn't make sense not to buy right now while the market is so great for us.

I should note that when Josh came home I asked him if he knew where our Christmas stuff was - he did, now it's up. It's a good thing I have a husband. It turns our he's pretty dang cool. We have stockings, a tree skirt, lights, it's a beautiful thing - I'll post pictures tomorrow...in the mean time, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

losing my mind

Do you ever feel lost? Confused? Like you are losing your mind? Today has been a little bit like that. Actually the whole weekend has been a little like that.


At Thanksgiving we had a "grateful turkey" and we all wrote what we're thankful for on feathers and stuck them in a squash. Only during dinner and everything else I kept calling them leaves. I couldn't remember that leaves are on trees and turkeys have feathers instead.


Since we had Thanksgiving yesterday at my house, that makes today the day after Thanksgiving. Since today is the day after Thanksgiving, that means it's time to put up Christmas! Yes!!! I dug up the tree......from the basement....I'm pretty sure this is the last year of that tree. It's served me well, but at some point I'm gonna have to say goodbye to THE tree. The thing is - well quite the sight. This tree has about a zillion memories.


Jamie and I bought this tree the year we lived in the dorms. My daddy always put a million lights on the tree and it was so beautiful. So, in order to curb the homesickness, I started putting a million lights on the tree - only I had never done it before, so it turned out having a zilllion on the tree and it just looks....well....bright. I put it up last year, but I think this will be the end of THE tree. But, for tonight it's up. For this season, it will do.


I'm excited to start wrapping presents and putting things under it. I got all excited about it, and then realized that I don't have a clue where my tree skirt, stockings, and other Christmas decorations are! Yikes! I don't even remember putting them away last year, I don't have a clue where they are, and I REALLY don't want to go digging through the basement full of the Griggs' stuff to find it. But, I guess I can't wait till we move out or it will be useless. So I suppose I'll have to start looking for it sooner rather than later....

Houses

We went house shopping on Saturday, before the bridal shower for my cousin, Josh and I went to see some houses. We went from Sandy to Murray and looked at 3 or 4 homes/condos. It's interesting the things I learned about my husband! He's into stuff, he wants nice stuff, and he's attracted to nice stuff. Who wouldda thought?

We found this very cute, 3 bedroom, small yard, homely condo in Sandy that I really liked - surprisingly more than I thought I would. Then we found this apartment style smaller, no yard, no garage, condo that came fully furnished, with a flat screen tv, that had tons of stuff in it, and Josh fell in love with it immediately. I was SHOCKED. I was so sure that he didn't want to live in anything like an apartment, and this DEFINITELY felt like an apartment. But, he loves it. The more we talk, the more I think he wouldn't actually want to own it, but I was surprised at his taste. I guess you just never know until you set foot in the perfect home....

We hope to do more house shopping early on Monday, but we'll see if it actually happens. I'm anxious to get in and see some more stuff, this time we're going to Davis county to see if we can find the perfect house. I'm sure it's out there, we just need to find it. I'm excited and scared of buying a house - it's a lot of money! But I can't wait to live somewhere that is really ours. I can paint the walls, put holes in them, change carpet, plant flowers, the whole thing. I'm thrilled to have newer furniture, rid ourselves of the ugly couch. Sigh. It'll be a beautiful thing.

Saturday night we played games with the Burches which was a blast! We had so much fun - and we stayed up way too late, and we listened to Christmas music and looked at Jamie and Cameron's tree. :) Yay for that. I've decided that the holidays are officially here because every single weekend between now and the new year is busy. Every one of them. So that may have been the last stay-up-late-playing-games-and-hanging-out night in a while.

Josh starts doing clinics soon - that means no more Saturdays. It also means he's getting closer to finishing this crazy massage school. I can't wait for it to be over - I can't wait to have my husband back, but it has to get worse before it gets better....or so they say. I'm ready to have a husband again and can't wait for May.

Just call me Alex

I'm always amazed by how quickly my mood can change.

Last night Josh picked me up from work and took me out to dinner because he loves me. Then we drove up to the top of the world and looked at the lights and talked and watched the planes come in. It was a beautiful night. Clear, calm, incredible. We sat and listened to Christmas music and every song was slow and beautiful. We just sat there, holding hands, and enjoying each other. I love movie-moments like that. When everything is perfect.

This morning I woke up grumpy. Really grumpy. Before I even got out of bed I was ready to call in sick. There was some annoying radio guy that would not SHUT UP! they were playing my least favorite Christmas song of all time. My eyes were sticky and my hair was touching me. My mouth tasted gross and I knew it was going to be a terrible horrible no good very bad day. I finally rolled out of bed, and started to get ready, the shower wasn't warm enough, my hair had knots in it, my face exploded and I had a bloody nose. I was already late, couldn't find anything to wear, my boring oatmeal tasted like oatmeal and not like anything good (chocolate). When Josh and I were both finally ready to go, I walked out the door and he looked at me weird, that means I looked stupid. "What?" I demanded. "Did you know you're wearing slippers?" He asked. I turned around, unlocked the door and went to find my shoes again. Muttering the whole way. We got in the car, hit every light red, and when I looked in the car mirror to put my lips on, I realized I parted my hair on the wrong side. Everything about me today is backwards and wrong and I don't like it. I guess it's not as bad as it could be, given that I didn't wake up with gum in my hair, trip over my skateboard, or drop my sweater in the sink....but I'm still extra whiny and extra grumpy and I know this is going to be a terrible horrible no good very bad day!

Welcome to grown-upness

I have decided that I'm officially a grown-up now. It's something I've been fighting for quite some time, and most days I don't count as a grown up because I have no babies. BUT I don't believe I can fight it much longer. Below are just a few of the reasons:

1. I hang out with my mother-in-law without my husband.
2. I go to pampered chef parties for actual kitchen utensils, not just to eat the good food.
3. I attend said pampered chef parties with my mother-in-law.
4. I eat oatmeal for breakfast. And there are no pictures of pirates or games on the cover or fake fruit in fun shapes in the oatmeal. It's just oatmeal.
5. My conversations with my "significant other" are more about bills and decisions than about movies, and dinner dates.
6. I'm house shopping.

There are more reasons, but those are the ones that are on my mind. However, the more I think about it, I think there are countering reasons that prove I'm not quite a grown-up just yet.

1. I buy "ninja tongs" at pampered chef parties.
2. I still buy sugar cereal for Saturdays.
3. I am DYING to go to the zoo with my significant other because they have giraffes and hippos there.
4. I'm scared of house shopping.
5. My mother-in-law is cool. So the fact that I hang out with her doesn't mean I'm old.
6. I put sidewalk chalk on my list for Santa.

See? I think I get to stay a child for a little longer.

At the pampered chef party last night, the guy that was doing the presentation thing was really cool and he was showing us all of his cool new bamboo stuff. Josh and I have an ongoing joke about bamboo in the kitchen because we got like 3 bamboo cutting boards for our wedding and I don't like them, but we couldn't find anywhere to take it back, so we re-gifted it to someone we love. We think it's weird to have bamboo in your kitchen. I'm starting to understand because of the demonstration exactly why the bamboo is cool, but it'll still take some getting used to.

Anyway, the guy doing the demonstration was really cool, and he was showing us the new bamboo salad tongs. The cool thing about these tongs is that they swing clear around so that they can fold flat, but when they are in their "tong position" (as shown in the picture on the left) they have normal tonging tension to keep them open. You should also know that I've been in search for the perfect tongs since....well...a long time. They are all the wrong size, or that annoying piece that keeps them closed in your drawer slides down when you're using them, or something else. Anyway, these are the cool bamboo tongs. He started showing us how they flip clear around to lay flat and was whipping them all over the place. Then he said they're also cool because you can impress your kids with your kitchen-ninja skills. Well, I got all excited when he mentioned the ninja thing, and I wrote on my order form "ninja tongs" without even thinking that's not really what they're called. That's embarrassing, but I'm SO excited for my ninja-tongs. I think they're cool. I also got other stuff that I'm excited for, but I think I might have to wrap them up for Christmas which is kindof a bummer.


Josh and I decided a little while ago that we'd have a really small Christmas this year so we could buy a house and save a ton of money and go to Oregon. I'm not sure how it's going to work out though, because every year from about September - December, everything I buy is "for Christmas" it's my way of guilt-free shopping for 4 months, which usually works out pretty well. Only I keep buying stuff that I'd probably buy anyway, and call it a Christmas present. So, I have a TON of stuff that I want for Christmas aka life; and I can't think of a darn thing to get Josh. Shopping for husbands is hard. Any good ideas? I'm open to suggestions.

Houses

We are officially house shopping now. We finally got numbers back from our lender and we are starting the search. Since I work for a real estate agent, we're gonna make him find us the perfect house, which is great. But it also means I can do a lot of the footwork myself and not waste our time looking at houses we already know we don't want.

We've learned a few things about what we do and do NOT want in a house from living in our current home. The funny thing is that Josh and I have very different pet peeves. For example, Josh knows that he wants a house that does have 50 year old plumbing. He's tired of buying drano by the gallon. I know that I don't want to walk on blue shag carpet for the rest of my life. He knows he "needs" a garage. I know I "need" a kitchen. He wants a yard. I want counter space. Between the two of us we want a dang nice house! Problem is that we're trying to buy it just with Josh's income and not mine. That means that we're fairly limited.

So Sunday morning I pulled a search on the MLS and found that we have a few options.
1. We can live in a 100 year old tiny house with no windows in Salt Lake.
2. We can live in a BEAUTIFUL brand new condo with incredible community ammenities (pool, playground, clubhouse, exercise room, nice neighbors) in Eagle Mountain.
3. We can live in a small modest, medium sized home in Magna.
So far we're leaning toward Magna. Mostly because those homes have garages and for some reason, my husband "needs" a garage. Or 4.

We found one house for sale in our price range, it has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and is small and old and needs a lot of work on the inside. Josh is a handyman and could easily do all of that work, but in the past he has expressed his lack of desire to remodel a home for us. So, I kindof skipped over this particular home. But then he saw that it has a 2 car garage. AND a 2 car carport. Suddenly he wants to rennovate the whole home and make it ours and live there forever.

I quickly pointed out that right now we have EXACTLY 1 working vehicle. Yes, we hope redbox will give us another one at the beginning of the year, but that's it. Then we will have 2 working vehicles. So, I ask him why he thinks he needs room for 4 cars.
"For the 4-wheelers" he says as if it's stupid that I'm even asking.
"What 4-wheelers?" I ask as if I've never heard of a 4-wheeler.
"The ones we're gonna buy."
"We don't have a car, a truck, or a trailer to pull them with, but we're buying 4-wheelers?"
"well. yeah."
"We don't have a savings account, we're going to have babies (no not an announcement), bills, I'm going to stop working, and you want to buy 4-wheelers?" My voice is starting to get high and squeaky, classic sign that we're about to "discuss" read: fight.
"umm....Not today. no. But a house is a place you live for a long time, right? And I'd like to have 4-wheelers in a long time......for the babies to ride." Desperately trying to appease my need to take care of our unborn children without agreeing that we're not buying 4-wheelers.
"We'll talk about it in a long time and decide if we have the money to buy 4-wheelers. But let's not build our home around the 4-wheelers we don't have the money to purchase. OK?"
"OK" He breathes a deep sigh of relief. Barely side-stepped that one.

So, I think I don't wanna live somewhere that provides more room for the cars and toys than it does for the vehicles, but we'll see. Maybe it's perfect and it's not that I'm against a home with a lot of "toy room" it's just that I don't think it's what I want right now. You know? I feel more like we need room to put our selves and our stuff, and not save room for the stuff we don't even have! But, I'm sure that we will wind up somewhere amazing and perfect for us. In the mean time I'm gonna try really hard not to kill my husband.

Breakfast Victory!!!

When Josh and I got married, I found that I have a LOT of opinions that I didn't know I had. I think that things belong in certain places (i.e. the hamper goes on the left side of the closet and shoes on the right side. clothes should hang facing the middle of the closet with bottoms on one side and tops on the other. spare TP rolls should be kept IN the bathroom. cups go in the cupboard by the sink.) certain tools should be used for specific jobs (the hand towel should not be used to clean off the counter. washcloth in the shower is different from the dishcloth in the kitchen. paper scissors are different from kitchen scissors.) and meals should be handled the way I know they should (dinner consists of bread, veggies, AND meat. you can't have 2 casseroles in the same meal. after 7:00 it's midnight snacks, not dinner.) breakfast has been the meal with the biggest issues.

Josh is a breakfast person. I am not. He listens when people say that it's "the most important meal of the day" plus he likes it. I went for years without ever eating breakfast. In my house it's an event. Dad makes incredible weekend breakfasts, but it's not like a small meal, it's as big as Thanksgiving Dinner! Anyway, I never was in the habit of breakfast and Josh was. So, I started to learn about breakfast. I lost most fights about breakfast. I no longer measure my pancake mix. We eat 20 times more pancakes (his preference) than waffles (my preference). The fact that we even eat breakfast is a victory for him. Since he dominates the breakfast world, I get excited about little victories like the one yesterday.

A while ago I started having oatmeal for breakfast, because I wanted to, and now I like it. So, Josh is doing the same. I read the instructions on the box, and know that you are supposed to add the water to the oatmeal and microwave it for 1 minute. Josh thinks that you are just supposed to add hot tap water, stir and eat. He also thinks that you need two packets when you do it this way, because before your nuke it, there's less volume.

After observing this for a few days, I decided to gently approach the subject of how he was eating his oatmeal wrong. I'm not sure why I cared, but I really felt the need to correct him.
"Josh, I know I'm from the true family and I do everything right. So I'm now going to tell you how to eat oatmeal."
"Amy, I'm glad you think you're right, but I can eat oatmeal anyway I want."
"OK Start over." I said. "I've enjoyed eating my oatmeal cooked instead of raw for a few days now, and I believe that you might more thoroughly appreciate your oatmeal if you allowed me to cook it for you. Since I love you so much, will you try it?"
"Sure. I don't' care. It's just faster my way." He shrugs.
No wonder men get married. I thought.

The first day I put two packets in the bowl, and twice as much water as one packet uses. I put our little microwave coverer upper in over the bowl of oatmeal, set it for twice as long as one packet and walked away. If you've ever done this, you know what's coming next. Yes, the oatmeal exploded. And oozed. I wiped off the bowl and cleaned out the microwave and made Josh eat the soupy oatmeal anyway. He added a 3rd packet just to soak up the excess water.
"This is not a victory for you, my system just needs to be tweaked because I KNOW you will like your oatmeal better cooked." I reminded him.
"OK. I don't care, it's just faster my way." He shrugged again.
No wonder men get married. I thought.

Day 2 I read the instructions on the box for cooking 2 packets, you put 1.5 as much water and cook it for twice as long. I followed the instructions, set the microwave for 2 minutes and walked away to finish doing my hair. I returned to the microwave to find that it exploded. And oozed. I wiped off the bowl, cleaned out the microwave and made Josh eat it anyway.
"Still not a victory, I'm trying again tomorrow - I'm on the right track. And I KNOW you will like your oatmeal better cooked." I stated.
"OK. I don't care, it's just faster my way." He shrugged again.
No wonder men get married. I thought.

Day 3 I used 2 packets of oatmeal, a slightly larger bowl, 1.5 times the water, and twice the time on the microwave. I set it for 1 minute. Checked it, stirred it. Set it for 30 seconds. Checked it. Stirred it. Set it for 30 seconds and took it out. PERFECT oatmeal. Josh poured milk over it and as he took a bite, I know he was thinking This is the best oatmeal I've ever eaten. No wonder I got married!

Home again!!!

Yay that Josh is home. I am amazed at how much I missed him! The weekend was stressful and busy, but good. The last couple of days have been every bit as stressful and busy, and I don't feel like I see him any more than I did when he was in Chicago. Sigh. I guess that's just part of life. I am thankful for the time I get to spend with him and I'm trying to learn not to whine.


The other night I picked him up from school and I was craving Wendy's SOOO bad! I don't even remember the last time I did a late-night Wendy's run but it always has and always will remind me of living in the dorms with Jamie, Hailey and Chelsea. So, after school we went to Wendy's and got Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers (greatest invention EVER!) AND french fries. Josh and I have an ongoing....debate...discussion....argument (not sure what the correct word is here) about Wendy's french fries. Because we lived off of Wendy's in the dorms, I LOVE their fries. good memories. Josh thinks they're gross, he only likes McDonald's fries which I think are gross. Because of the great fry debate, we rarely go to Wendy's so I was excited that I won and we got to go. We came home, ate on the floor (a requirement for a midnight Wendy's run) and watched TV and talked. That's the kind of thing I love about Josh. He's seriously my very best friend in the whole wide world. I'm glad to have him back. So, the question of the day is, who has the best fries?


Beyond that, life is just...normal. I've been working a lot, and haven't had time to do much else. I still feel like I'm catching up on laundry since he got home. I think I will forever feel like I'm behind on laundry. I'm thrilled that it's Christmas, and started to get excited to go shopping. I don't have a car again this Christmas season (that was the case last year too), but fortunately Al Gore invented the Internet which means Christmas Shopping will be easy enough. Now if only I can think of stuff to get for everybody!

Just so there is an official update: no I have not heard back about the job in HR. I don't really expect to until they send out the "we don't really like you" e-mail, and that's OK.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Confession: we've been listening to Christmas music for more than month now. Not every day, mostly just on Sundays - once in a while during the week. Yesterday officially marked the beginning of the Christmas Season. Now that makes some people upset because it's not even close to Thanksgiving yet. BUT it's here anyway. You can tell because of 2 things.
1. KOSY is playing Christmas music. :) Yes, that's right. All the live long day. I woke up to God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen this morning. This is the only time of year I listen to KOSY - and I'll only do that until FM 100 starts playing it too.

The music got me all excited and I am ready to break out the decorations. I'm seriously considering putting up my tree before Christmas this year. Partly because I'm worried we'll be packing and moving during Christmas, and partly because I LOVE it! Since I haven't really done enough Christmas shopping yet, I'm considering wrapping empty boxes to put under the tree. Imagine how fun it will be on Christmas morning to open a box and find nothin' but air in there! I think it's brilliant.

What do you think? When is the earliest possible date to put up Christmas? We've always done it right after Thanksgiving, but I don't know that I can hold off that long this year....I'm trying to convince Josh to let us put up outside lights, but who knows who will win that battle. :) I'm seriously considering doing it next week. Is that allowed?

The first interview for the 2nd job.

This whole situation has been SO weird, and I'm NOT loving it. But, that's OK, life happens.

Today I went in for my first interview for this job in central HR for the church. To be honest I wasn't that excited/nervous about it, in fact I wasn't really feeling anything for it. I was just going to go because they called me, and I figured I had nothing to lose.

I first met with a very nice girl named Katy. She is the one who used to be in the position they are now hiring for, and she moved to a new position. She told me about the 3 guys I'd be working with, they all seem great. She told me about the job, it's busy and fast paced. There's always plenty to do. She also went to the business college and we talked a bit about that. She put me at ease immediately and I loved talking with her. In this position I think I'd still be working a lot with her. She was great, I felt like we were a lot alike, and when she talked about the people she used to work for, it sounded perfect for me. They loved her because she was quick and dedicated. I really felt like it was the perfect position for me. A lot of things I'd be very interested in. She was very nice a friendly and I was feeling great.

Then I met with some other guy whose name I can't even remember. He asked me a couple of questions, then asked "what are your career goals?"
"I don't know." slipped out before I even had a chance to think about it. He immediately made a note that I have no goals and waited for me as I tried to recover. I don't know what I said, but it wasn't good. That threw off the whole interview for me. I knew he thought I was useless and wasn't going anywhere in life. He asked about my work experience, what I was looking for, etc etc etc. Then after he was through, he went back to this career thing.
"I ask about careers because we really don't expect someone in this position to stay in it forever. We want them to want to become more than a secretary, we expect them to better themselves and continue to grow."
"I agree" I said lamely. Clearly I did not agree because I have no goals. What kind of person says that in an interview? Ew, I'm disappointed in myself and I feel stupid. But, oh well. Just a waste of a lunch break.

I cried on the way back to the car. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately. I cried on my way back to work, and tried to make myself look human enough to come back to my desk and do my job. I ate some chocolate and tried not to cry at work. I just feel so stupid. I wasn't even that excited about this job, but after the first part of my interview I felt so great and so excited about the position that the second half was a slap in the face.

I've decided that I'm done being rejected for now. No more applications, no more interviews, no more sneaking out of my office to look for other jobs. I'm just going to have to learn to be happy where I am. Sigh.

Halloween time

I love Halloween. It's always a party at my house. My dad loves it. So this year he built a fire in the driveway (right next to my car which I promptly moved) and was roasting "bloody fingers" to offer to all of the trick-or-treaters. My 2 year old nephew, Tyler, was all for it, but the others seemed a little more nervous. Dad was more than willing to take donations for these "digital delights!" all night long, and even had a real live knife...shockingly no takers.

I went trick or treating with everyone, which was really fun. Those kids are cute, and this is the first year they really got the concept of trick or treating. It was hilarious to watch them run from house to house and come back all excited when some people even let them take MORE THAN ONE candy! Wow. They are lucky kids.

It was a good Halloween, kindof a bummer with Josh in Chicago, but I still had fun.